The King of Song

The King of Song is a historical time-travel novel by Yin Sanwen, serialized on Qidian from 2013 and completed in June 2016, with 735 chapters and about 2.37 million characters. Lin Zhao, a modern student of criminal investigation, drowns and travels to the Northern Song dynasty, where his soul enters the body of a servant boy in the Meng household in Jiangning, Jiangnan. At first he only wants to escape servitude and become a rich young man composing poetry by the Qinhuai River. Using modern knowledge and rigorous reasoning, he resolves a frame-up in the Meng household and proves his innocence, then becomes involved in the murder of an Liao envoy, which leads him into officialdom. As his origins are revealed, Lin Zhao turns out to be Zhao Zhao, the fourth son of Emperor Renzong of Song who was lost among the people, left stranded in Jiangnan because the Yingzong–Shenzong line seized the throne, and nearly assassinated. While befriending loyal ministers and righteous men such as Di Qing, he achieves merit in justice, diplomacy, military affairs, and economics: going on missions to Liao, quelling rebellions in the south, fighting Western Xia, managing the tea-horse trade, piloting the Green Sprouts policy, and governing the Yellow River, gradually building prestige in the crevice between scholar-officials and imperial power, ultimately reclaiming the throne and recovering the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun. Set against the backdrop of the Northern Song from Renzong to Shenzong, the book intersperses interactions with historical figures such as Ouyang Xiu and Su Shi, and combines court intrigue, border warfare, and the protagonist's romantic entanglements with several women.